Late Afternoon Under the Weeping Willow in Ashland, Oregon
Two black wrought iron-chairs and a matching table. An old couple talks about how the lovers in the play missed true love, accepted good enough, veered away from a leap of faith. Settled. One actor clung to a dock, another jumped into mud-suck. Though each was heir to a salvation, both lived out their lives as they had always lived. Riffles of waterfall backgrounds the swish of new-spring leaves. The pair in the stiff chairs? They recall flash-in-the-pan gold, the fish that get away, how easy to err, standing still. Through the veil of the willow, hand in hand they meander into evening. After the sun sets, two empty chairs. The willow stills after vanished wind. In the pond the frog chorus sings “creek” and then “free” and finally, maybe “right,” mating calls of the warm spring night tucked in the sweep of the willow’s reach. Tricia Knoll Tricia Knoll’s poetry collections include her full-length book Ocean’s Laughter (Aldrich Press, 2016) and her chapbook Urban Wild (Finishing Line Press, 2014). Website: triciaknoll.com
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Into The Tempest
The last moments of this play do not require counting bodies. No nobles draped over stairways and risers, knifed, bludgeoned, pricked with poison. We went along with transformed usurpers, false dukes, new love, a jealous monster and an exile embracing forgiveness. Lithe Ariel who hopped the sea winds of freedom. We applaud sweat on the actors and stumble to exits, bump against strangers recycling programs– others whose hours saw what ours saw and ears heard what ours heard, a ship-wreck storm, the swash to shore, eyes to a brave new world. Out into an April downpour on slippery bricks, a starless night storm-charged with words, the wind shreds pink blossoms on the plum trees. Gutters churn with washed-up blooms. You held onto my thumb, we totterers advancing through a storm as if the world itself was no longer at war, under the thumb of usurpers and grudging poisonous monsters, as if only the theatre this night went dark. Tricia Knoll Tricia Knoll, an Oregon poet, has obsessions. Writing poetry every day, working to see them published in numerous journals, a chapbook out called Urban Wild, and a book coming out from Aldrich Press in spring of 2016, Ocean's Laughter. Others? Going to theater, running, tai chi, dancing, growing a native plant garden for pollinators and birds. Coming in doors to write more poetry. www.triciaknoll.com |
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